Col. Gen. Guderian

I've tried it but I see no easy solution. I've devised a way of taking it in two turns max once the operation begins, but it costs that much using the amphibious transports and transporting the units back and generally affects your pre barbarossa schedule. Then I was thinking, if you invade Sweden, Finland won't join you unless you invest chits in diplomacy. Overall I'm wondering if the amphibious/regular transports, operations and reinforcements of units probably costs more than the plunder of taking Sweden, coupled with losing out on Finland. The alternative is just to leave it be and invest a chit or two in it to ensure its convoys. Maybe everyone realises this and I haven't until now, or do people always take Sweden after Norway?

I've ordered the game by download and mail hoping I would get a manual to hold in my hands, is this not the case?

Just wondering how most people manage their MPP expenditure, particularly as Axis prior to barbarossa? I used to be most concerned with making sure my units all had lvl 2 motorization, lvl 2 Infantry weapons and lvl 2 heavy tanks, and so on. This sometimes left me slightly short on manpower though as the campaign progresses, though my units were usually of good quality. I would normally be invading with about 20 units (excluding HQ's), last night however I tried to purchase more units and leave most research for the time being, ending up with about 27 units (about 6 tank groups, 2 special forces units, 3 or 4 dive bombers and several air fleets) in time for the attack. Unfortunately I screwed up with my border units and USSR entered the war early before I could attack them. So just wondering what peoples thoughts are regarding this? Obviously research and purchasing units is a balancing act, but seeing as in the case of the Axis, you have a tight timetable for producing units in time for barbarossa, and since you start with reasonable technology on the soft units, is it more beneficial to go for slightly more quantity than quality? So instead of having four lvl 2 or 3 tanks, i might have six lvl 1 tanks, and maybe just infantry tech lvl 1 but more corps, armies and special forces. My thinking is that you can develop your way throughout the campaign and improve these units gradually, but that the most important thing might be to have the units purchased already and ready for upgrade, especially since with the seasons if you purchase some units they might miss out an entire summer campaign.

lol

Shut up you ball-bag.

Right not even that sorted it, I actually had to cut and paste these 'compatibility files' over to the main battlefront folder before I could actually send the file as an attachment. I'm pretty convinced that this has to be a glitch with Vista, as opposed to me not knowing what to do. Windows explorer is really **** for Vista

Ok weird, I checked the 'compatibility files' and there it is, the multiplayer folder. Windows Vista is veeeeeeery strange.

K. you may call me an uber-noob but after I did my first turn I went to send the file but there was no multiplayer/e-mail directory, and all I could load from the save directory was the autosave file. Do I have to create a 'multiplayer/e-mail' file prior to doing it???

This would be my first game of SC2 against a human opponent so I'm looking for someone similarly inexperienced. Although if someone fancies giving me a whooping I'm open to that too, as it's the best way to learn fast. I'm not on ICQ but my e-mail is ben_od13@hotmail.com Call me!

I think Colin is odds on to lose this one.

Well, I'm no expert but taking Britain essentially knocks both them and America out of the war for the most part. Britain can't do much if stuck in Egypt and can probably be contained by the Italians.

Actually, to my amazement, I was able to take both Poland and LC on turn 2, although this is unlikely to happen if the Dutch corps is positioned to the west of the Rhine. I ignored Denmark as well. Terif's method sounds pretty unbeatable though, and should result in lots of early plunder. Funny, I would never have even contemplated doing it that way but I suppose it makes perfect sense because the French forces are so ill-prepared themselves.

BTW, how many units do you use to attack LC with then on turn 2? I wouldn't want to dilute the forces in the east too much or it could take an age to capture Poland.

My time table is usually to take Poland in 2 turns, then take Denmark on the third and send all the units over west on foot and be ready to invade in April. However, if the weather is muddy I usually wait another turn til May. Your strategy sounds extremely risky against any half decent opponent. Is there any major benefit to taking France early but in such a costly and sloppy fashion? Presumably this also means Denmark will have to be taken after it. I'll give it a try anyway against the comp a few times and see the results

I was wondering about Spain myself, if it is worth investing all your chits in it? What I usually would do is invest a German chit in Norway and Sweden each to safeguard those convoys and I would usually invest 2 more in Iraq in anticipation of the Axis coup there. Is it worth investing all 5 German chits in it regardless of whether or not you've already had a big hit with it? That costs 375 mpps which is quite a lot, then again I suppose getting Spain means an extra 40 MPPs per turn,not including Portugal plus extra plunder which effectively makes it an extra 56 MPPs per turn. Then there's also the strategic options given, with Gibraltar etc. etc. As for North Africa, I've always found it difficult to know what to do with it as Axis. If you leave it alone, it will certainly be taken, but backing it up seems to be such a distraction for Germany and a waste of precious MPPs. I'm beginning to think the most sensible option is to send a German engineer over to construct fortifications around Tobruk supported by an Italian HQ and then leave the Italians to their own devices. 3 Italian corps/armies with possible upgrades in IW and AT techs fortified around tobruk would surely prove a tough nut to crack? I believe Italy's main function in the game should be to support Germany and not the other way round. It should mainly be used for it's diplomacy, for researching intelligence (would this help?) and for building units to cover Germany in the west. P.S. Terif, how on earth do you take France by April-May???? I thought that'd only be possible with weather turned off.

Yep, just checked it. Each level of production tech reduces reinforcement of the basic unit excluding upgrades by 5%. For example, if you were to reinforce a tank group from 1 to full strength, with no upgrades but with level 2 production tech, you'll save 10% on it (cost=101 MPPs instead of a nominal 112). However if the unit is level 5 heavy tanks and level 2 motorization and it is reinforced to full, it makes no difference. You'll only save 10% on the cost of the unit before upgrades (cost=168 MPPs instead of a nominal 180), i.e. a saving of 11-12 MPPs both times despite the costly upgrades in the second instance. Had production tech included the cost of upgrade reinforcement, there would have been a saving of 18 MPPs on the upgraded tank group instead of 12. I don't know yet however if the same applies to units that have been bought back at 60% the cost. It says in the manual though "reinforcement costs for damaged units are based on the current cost of the unit." Production tech seems not to affect the actual upgrading of units that are already built either. It doesn't seem to make any of this stuff clear in the manual, but page 19 is the place to look with reference to this. P.S. Of ever so slight note, the game rounds down instead of up for each 0.5 of an MPP.

Ok, contrary to popular belief, Production Tech does reduce the cost of reinforcement , slightly, as I have just experimented. I did a hot-seat game and reinforced a British airfleet (no techs) from 4 to full strength, and it cost 90 MPPs. When done on the equivilent German air-fleet it cost only 85 MPPs to reinforce from 4 to full strength, again no techs. However, when I upgraded them both to level 1 AA, the british air fleet cost 99 whilst the German airfleet cost 94. This suggests that Production Tech reduces the reinforcement cost of the basic unit but not any upgrades. I'll do a few bigger experiments with the editor to get to the bottom of this [ October 01, 2007, 06:00 AM: Message edited by: Col. Gen. Guderian ]

Oops, haha, just spotted how this works on the convoy map. I can't believe I never noticed it before. Now that I know how this works, I'm just wondering what the best strategy is. Presumably as soon as lend-lease starts the US convoys should be maxed out seeing as they're still not officially in the war. This would obviously be a daft idea if the atlantic is swarmed with U-boats though. [ September 16, 2007, 10:15 AM: Message edited by: Col. Gen. Guderian ]

What do you mean by this, how does this work? Some guy said on another thread how with IT you can make a strong Russia if you're willing to have a weak USA. Is there a choice on how many MPPs you want to ship between the big three or something that I didn't know about?

Does PT reduce the cost of reinforcements or is it just for the initial cost of the unit? It doesn't seem to specify this in the manual.

I think SC2 gets it spot on with France. In SC1 it was unrealistically tough taking France against a human opponent. I think it's great just the way it is.

What are the increments?

Why is industrial tech less important for certain majors? They all have the same effect do they not? I can understand why Britain and US need it more because they can't really conquer territories like Germany, but what about Italy? It would be great if someone in the know could list the pros and cons of industrial tech for all the nations (excluding France of course).

Yeah, that does make sense. Still, I find it strange that units cannot surrender. They are either rescued or completely annihilated.

Why is it that often when a unit is destroyed, it can be bought back at a slashed price and its production is usually no more than a couple of months? I've seen nothing in the manual about this.